June 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 4
Welsh rockers Innercity Pirates make the kind of frenetic pop punk whose complex melodies and acerbic lyrics, delivered in front man Russell Toomey’s rasping shouts and growls, are fuelled by a surge of anger that makes you feel that their debut album ‘Cutting Noses, Chasing Tales’ is flipping you off. If you ever had a run in with the band, it probably is.
“I would say when it comes to the bones of the music it’s very punk, but I think the non …read more
June 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 4
“I’ve always been a bit of a rebel in music.” Kissy Sell Out: not your usual DJ, producer, graphic designer and all round bloody nice guy. He’s a trained artist turned songwriter who channels his vision through music, creates dance music with grunge and classical influences and has been described as one of the decade’s most charismatic DJs yet is a misfit. Raging contradiction that might be, he makes it work.
“I’ve never really been part of a …read more
June 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 4
“She is beauty and she is grace,
She is queen of 50 states,
She is elegance and taste,
She is Miss United States.”
Sings a doe eyed man staring in adoration, with just a smidge of jealousy, at the weeping my size Barbie, draped in a sash with her tiara firmly in place and a smile stretched from ear to ear (whether through happiness or pain because she can’t move her face anymore is unclear).
The beauty pageant is a staple of American …read more
June 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 4
Aussie duo Tim And Jean make the kind of synth pop that’s destined to be the music you dance to all summer, and have the kind of looks that are destined to be splashed on posters stuck to the ceilings of teenage girls everywhere.
The guys had one of those cool cosmic, meant to be, Fate with a capital letter type chance encounter (that musicals will have you believe all the great matches have) at a train station, no less, and immediately started jamming …read more
June 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 4
Crammed into the back of a church, passing a smuggled can of Strongbow back and forth while surrounded by the reverent, watching the jubilant indie-folk-pop set of Slow Club at The Great Escape was a perfect introduction to the band’s live show and one of my stand out gigs of last year. It’s nice to know they enjoyed it too.
“That was one of our favourites that year. It was brilliant, I really enjoyed it.”
Rebecca Taylor and Charles Watson …read more
June 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 4
“‘Queen of Hearts’ embodies the combination of power and vulnerability and I think that sums me up and what my songs represent.”
A new reign in pop is about to begin; Queen of Hearts is the latest pop monarch to stake her claim to the throne.
“It’s the year of the woman in music right now; Jessie J, Clare Maguire, Rihanna, Gaga. It’s a tough job to stand out when there are so many amazing women to compete with.”
There’s no denying it; …read more
June 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 4
It’s not 1991. We’re not in Seattle and chances are you’re not a disenfranchised youth earing plaid and ripped denim and plucking along on your battered guitar to ‘Nevermind’. Sorry. The good news, though, is that we are full swing into a grunge revival. And who doesn’t love a good revival? Japanese Voyeurs may be just the band to put you right back in your greasy haired, stoner bedroom of yore.
In fact, the parallels are all so screamingly …read more
February 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 3
Everything about The Moons suggests that their gig tonight at Concorde 2 should be attended by girls with beehives in shift dresses while hordes of Mods and Rockers do battle on the pavement outside. There should at least be a classic Vespa somewhere in sight. No such luck. They do, however, have the hair cuts and the dapper threads.
The Moons are the retro five piece whose sound is an update on old style rock reminiscent of the days of the Kinks and The …read more
February 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 3
Founded by Le Tigre’s JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, men is the band/art/performance collective who use their powerful live performances, combining costume and art, to articulate their socio/sexual political views.To dance music.
Yes, I know how that sounds. It’s not exactly de rigueur for a dance tune.
But the idea is central to the entire concept of the band. Their stage personas and the use of costume and art on stage, is a vital part of their …read more
February 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 3
“To me the whole punk ethic is that anything goes. It’s not a sound, punk; it ’s an ethos.”
Ask a band about their on stage nightmares and you’ll usually get told of broken equipment and occasionally over eager fans storming the stage. Maybe an incident of mid gig spewing, if you’re in the right interview.
But this is the Dub Pistols and Barry Ashworth’s done everything on stage from snapping his leg to knocking himself out on a crash …read more
Amy Lavelle is a freelance journalist who writes for the likes of Grazia, Glamour, Red, The Pool, Metro, Telegraph and the Independent, among others. She writes a fashion column for Simply Knitting magazine, as well as working as a subeditor for Holt Publishing's monthly All About... magazines.
Amy is represented by Amanda Preston and Hannah Schofield at LBA. Her debut novel, Definitely Fine, published by Orion Fiction, is out now.
